Author: Ben

The year started with so much promise, a trail race booked for mid January in an attempt to finally get over the post Ironman blues and rediscover my love for training. Almost a whole year later I’ve finished the year with my 2nd race of the year doing the Llandeilo New Years Eve 10 mile (race review to come). In between those 2 races there has been a lot of false starts with training, a protracted move to Wales where I found myself living a single persons life Monday to Friday in AirBnB’s and a rekindled love for cycling.

After the Naunton Nearly 19 in January I started making race plans for the year as you do in the post race endorphin high. Pencilling in revisiting the half ironman distance again for a crack at a PB, some longer trail races and maybe even a marathon PB attempt in the Autumn. A job offer in February that triggered our move to Wales and a realisation that stress at work and a house move weren’t a good combination meant all those plans were quickly shelved.

Instead the year has been about just enjoying being active again without the pressure of preparing for races. Learning to take a step out the front door in the mornings and simply move. Plus trying to get some adventures fitted in (although in June I got a bit more adventure than I planned!). What I hadn’t planned for was developing a real love for cycling (both road and more recently mountain biking).

There are many clichés about following your dreams “life’s too short” “this is not a rehearsal” etc, or my personal favourite “just fucking do it”. Well that’s exactly what we’re doing, I found myself a new job near Swansea and we’re in the throws of relocating from Wiltshire to the Brecon Beacons. Searching out a life lived more outside, in beautiful countryside and maybe even at some point in the future not involving an office (or at least not everyday). Right now the reality of that move is me living in an Airbnb Monday to Friday until our house move completes in the hopefully not too distant future. Let the adventure begin!

Fuelled by the adrenaline and excitement of being here and actually bloody doing what we’ve talked about for years I decided take advantage of not having family responsibilities in the evening and head into the Brecon Beacons for an evening run. I thought I’d keep it simple to begin with, a couple of hours post work in an area where I did my navigation course 2 years ago.

With map in hand and a pack full of the essentials for running in the hills I headed up the Beacons Way from the car full of the joys of a glorious summer evening. Not knowing at that point that it would be significantly more than a couple of hours before I’d be back there again. […]

I’m not a big reader. This may seem like an odd way to begin a book review but hear me out. I’m not good at sitting doing ‘nothing’, I either want to be productive and busy or asleep. The reality is that once I’ve been to work, done any training, spent time with the kids and completed normal life stuff there really isn’t much time left to sit and read. But I have been making an effort recently to take 15-20 minutes each evening before going to sleep to read. There’s been many studies done that show you sleep better when you haven’t been looking at a screen in the evening and let’s be honest aimlessly scrolling through Instagram isn’t really useful or productive is it? […]

Sometimes you need to push yourself to stick to a training plan and get through a tough period. Sometimes, however, you need to listen to your body and mind and back off. This is one of those times. I’ve never been a prolific racer but the whole idea of taking part in a race at the moment doesn’t motivate me at all. The discipline of training and then the hassle of race day just to get a medal doesn’t appeal nor does religiously following a training plan.

Maybe I’m a bit jaded from such an intense 6 months last year building up to my Ironman? Whatever it is I’m currently using the no plan training plan. I don’t have a colourful table on my fridge telling me what I’m doing each day, instead I’m just doing what I feel like (or don’t feel like for that matter). I’m still trying to train as a triathlete and do all 3 sports each week I’m just doing so without feeling I HAVE to get the sessions done. It’s really quite refreshing.

Wednesday last week we all sat around the breakfast table feeling very sorry for ourselves. None of us wanted to be out of bed, none of us wanted to be heading out into the dark and cold to work/school/childcare. I had tonsillitis, my wife had a throat infection, our youngest had an ear infection and the older 2 children coughs and colds. I think we lead a healthy life, we get lots of exercise and fresh air, we generally eat well with lots of fresh fruit and veg but this winter has been pretty darn miserable.

In these busy modern lives that we lead it can be hard to stop and rest, I work in finance and being off at month end isn’t really an option. So I ploughed through it and then crashed for 2 days afterwards as my body screamed at me to rest. But rest and listen to our bodies we must, especially if we are endurance athletes who at some point this season want to try and push our bodies. There is no point pushing on with sessions when sick, better to recover properly and quickly.